Moffat, Cecil And Many More On Dr Who
Following on from Yesterday's announcement, PC Gamer have published a mass of quotes that I didn't have room to fit in my feature (Which is available in their current mag). Firstly, there's a bunch from Simon Nelson, Multi-Platform Controller at the BBC, mainly talking about why the BBC is doing this. Clearly, worth reading for those wondering about the thinking behind it. The Second Article is cut from two conversations. One is chatting to Steven Moffat and Piers Wenger of Who fame on pretty much everything, including having Dr Who Doom Mods. The other is to Charles Cecil, Sumo and BBC Wales' Senior Producer Mat Fidell. Lots inside each piece, but I'll pull out some fun quotes beneath the cut...
Simon Nelson: We definitely see it as part of the BBC's remit to introduce people to new technology or new aspects of of technology which they might be unfamiliar or uncomfortable. I always see it as a prime purpose of the BBC website to help people make their first steps to doing something online - whether it's watching video or basic surfing. I'm very excited about the potential of what we're doing with Doctor Who to introduce episodes of Adventure Gaming to a mass audience who wouldn't normally dream of going to anything similar... and maybe a bit intimidated by it.
Simon Nelson: Everyone on the team made absolutely sure that we dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" of possible market-impact concerns or public-service justifications for what we're doing. There's no doubt that any time you're doing anything on this scale, whether it's actual drama, news... you have to. As the BBC, that you're putting public licence fee money behind it, you want to make damn sure you're convinced you're building public value and you're not damaging markets that are out there. We were pleased that the extensive and objective analysis we had done confirmed our core instincts - that this is something the BBC should be doing.
And read more here.
Moffat: I loved Tomb Raider at the beginning, but got increasingly bored by it, because you had to keep on shooting things. The shooting things was always really dull. It was always about trying to solve the problem of the big tomb that was great. How long must I kill this sodding lion for?
It's not exciting, because you're not really killing a lion. You're just playing with the controls... but you are really solving a puzzle. And the Doctor's a great character to be in the company of, to be part of or to be in that kind of an adventure. You're solving puzzles. You're being clever. And the best thing is that the Doctor sometimes just runs away.
PC Gamer: Violent games have traditionally tended to be the most popular, though.
Moffat: Is that WHY? I was playing Halo the other night... and I was more interested in how lovely it is. And sometimes I turn it to the easy setting and just see what new places you can crawl into. I'm not sure they're always right. I'm not disapproving of violence but... it's getting kind of boring.
Wenger: It's not just Doctor Who trying to do a game which feels like a movie. The military games just offer the thrills and spills that a big, violent war movie would. And what we're trying to do is offer the same thrills and spills that an episode of Doctor Who does.
Moffat: We do know about good stories. We do know about suspense and differing the payoff and all that. Suspense. Jokes! Good, funny jokes. Dialogue! Sometimes I'm sitting at a computer game and think... Good God, this is a horrible story. It really is terrible.
Millard: [On episode size] The same story it would take in 45 minutes, to play through it, to get involved in it, takes at least twice as much time to play through.
Cecil: And the stories are more ambitious than an episode. They tell more story. Tom Watson [MP] made a comment that the BBC should be investing in games development. It will be great to e-mail Tom to say... THIS IS WHAT WE'VE DONE. There's that sense from him, and I hope others, that this is exactly the sort of area that the BBC should be getting into.
Millard: The closest comparison we've got in games in terms of being on the telly is something like Grand Theft Auto, which is on for the news for a negative reason for five minutes. And this is going to be so much bigger. There's nothing in game terms which has that level of publicity within the public's eyes. Nothing any other game has ever done compares.
It's going to be brilliant for so many reasons, but the strength of the stories is... I was literally in tears at the end of one of them. I felt absolutely pathetic, but... I can't wait.
And read more here.